Think Prison Abolition in America Is Impossible? It Once Felt Inevitable

Think Prison Abolition in America Is Impossible? It Once Felt Inevitable

May 19, 2018 | by Joshua Dubler and Vincent LloydThe Guardian

In an essay for the “Ideas for America” series in The Guardian, two American professors argue for the end of prisons in the United States in the name of justice and morality. “The problem isn’t merely that we lock too many of our fellow citizens and, increasingly, non-citizens in cages,” they write. “It’s that locking any human being in a cage is a moral abomination.” Joshua Dubler and Vincent Lloyd argue their case by presenting a recent history of the prison abolition movement, including a mention of NCCD and its 1972 endorsement of a moratorium on prison construction. In addition, they begin their piece by quoting Judge James E. Doyle, who spoke of the probable need to end the institution of prison after ruling in favor of an incarcerated man who had not been allowed to exchange letters with his lover. Doyle’s son, Jim, later served as the governor of Wisconsin, from 2003 to 2011. You can read the full essay here.